Flags? Trivia Quiz

A white flag with a red cross (Saint George's cross) represents England. Traditional English cuisine used to have a rather poor reputation, but there are some recipes that are very popular even with foreigners.
Bangers are sausages, mostly made of pork (although lamb sausages and beef sausages are also used). During the Great War sausages contained so much water they opened with a "bang" when baked on high fire. The mash refers to mashed potatoes. Cook potatoes in salty water until they're done, remove the water, add milk, butter and pepper (and other seasonings as you like). Bangers and mash are usually served with onion gravy: the gravy in which the sausages have been baked, with some sliced onions heated in it.
Could you serve an English flag using bangers and mash? You may try to cross some red-hot sausages and fill the sides with mashed potatoes, but in my experience white potato mash is quite bland. So, I would really not recommend it.

Red and yellow are the typical colours of the Spanish flag. Spanish cuisine has several recipes that are known all over the world, and many people thinking of Spanish cuisine will first come up with paella.
Paella is a rice dish with origins in and around Valencia. A typical recipe goes as follows: heat some olive oil, add meat (for instance chicken or rabbit), add green vegetables, add tomatoes, garlic and paprika, and in the final step, add rice and simmer until the rice is done. The paella Mista is a variation that is favoured by many tourists: it contains not only chicken, but also sea food (such as shrimps).
Could you serve a paella in the Spanish colours? Well, the rice will come out quite yellowish, so you have to select really red meat or seafood - for instance red snapper. The only obstacle is that paella comes in a circular pan, and you might have some trouble getting the rice in the middle and the snapper on two sides.

The Danebrog (a white cross on a red flag) is one of the oldest flags continually in use as a national standard.
Danish cuisine has undergone many foreign influences. But the smǿrrebrǿd is quite typical of Danish and Norse traditions. (To avoid inadequate rendering on some computers, I've omitted the diagonal stripes through the o in the answer option). Smǿrrebrǿd can be translated as "buttered bread". It consists of open sandwiches, smeared with butter and a savoury topping. One typical example is the "veterinarian's midnight snack": a slice of rye bread, butter, liverwurst, salted beef and meat aspic garnished with onion rings.
As there are so many options for the topping of smǿrrebrǿd, it would be quite feasible to serve it with a topping of salmon with a little cross of cream cheese in the shape of the Danish flag.

The horizontal tricolour of red, white and blue can refer to the Netherlands or (with a paler shade of blue) to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. But I chose to link this flag to the Dutch recipe of snert, a very thick pea soup. Rumour has it that the Dutch like to stick a spoon in their snert, and the spoon should remain standing for a few moments.
The main ingredient of pea soup is of course peas - and for a thick pea soup as snert, you really need a lot of peas. Other traditional ingredients (besides the broth to make it a soup) are celery, onions, and leeks. Carrots and potatoes may be added but be careful with the carrots: snert should be pale green, so the orange of the carrots must not prevail. Of course, you need to season the soup with salt and pepper. Traditional snert is made with broth taken from pork.
Snert is served hot, with sliced smoked sausage (rookworst) on top. Some variations include small dice of lard or are served with savoury pancakes.
Although snert is officially a soup, it is frequently served as the only course: it is so thick that it really sates a hungry stomach.
Could you serve a red-white-blue snert? No way: snert should be green, as the main ingredient has to be peas. Alas for the more inventive cooks who take this quiz...

The Polish flag is quite simple: a red rectangle topped by a white rectangle. Even I can manage to draw this flag recognizably. Don't mix it up with the Indonesian flag: the same design, but with reversed colours.
One of the typical Polish recipes is bigos: a rich stew made of various meats and cabbages. I found a recipe with following ingredients: kielbasa (Polish sausage), smoked bacon and pork stew as the meats, and green cabbage, sauerkraut, carrots, onion, mushrooms and tomatoes as the vegetables. First heat all the different meats until the outer crust is slightly browned. Add the vegetables and reduce the heat. Let simmer for some time, and then season with salt and pepper, caraway seed, marjoram, cayenne, bay leaf, paprika, pepper sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Finally let simmer up to three hours in the oven.
Theoretically one could make a two-layered bigos, with red meat (for instance beef) as the bottom layer and white vegetables (sauerkraut and onions) on top. But I'm afraid most Polish cooks would not agree to try making bigos in the shape of the Polish flag.

Blue and white are the traditional colours of the Greek flag displayed here.
Greek mezze is an assortment of various appetizers, including tzatziki: a cucumber-yoghurt dip. Many supermarkets sell tzatziki ready for consumption, but it is relatively easy to make yourself. First, peel a cucumber, slice it in very thin strips (you may find it easier to use a kitchen robot to this end) and sprinkle with some salt to extract excessive moisture. Mix yoghurt with olive oil, add the dried cucumber shreds, some crushed garlic, and seasoning. That's really all it takes.
Could you make tzatziki in the shape of the Greek flag? No way: cucumber is green, not blue. And the tzatziki should be really blended together, into one homogenous dip sauce.

The Belgian tricolour of black, yellow and red refers to the Duchy of Brabant, the medieval territory that is right in the centre of Belgium.
Belgian cuisine has absorbed many influences from abroad and has a reputation for serving large tasteful portions. A few recipes were "invented" in Belgium, such as the waterzooi: a stew of meat in broth. Originally waterzooi was made with freshwater fish, but nowadays most restaurants serve the version with chicken.
To prepare waterzooi, you start by making a broth: fry some garlic and onions, leek, carrots and celery and fill up the casserole with boiling water. Season with thyme, bay leaves, pepper and salt. Let simmer for a while and then add chicken. Boil for half an hour. Then peel and cook some potatoes. Chop some carrots, leek and celery in julienne (fine strips). Sieve the broth over the julienne. Add the chicken to complete the "zooi". Make a sauce with cream and egg yolks. Add the potatoes and the sauce to the zooi and garnish with fresh green herbs (parsley, chervil...)
Make sure the potatoes don't fall apart: you have to select the potato species that doesn't crumble too much.
The idea of waterzooi in the colours of the Belgian flag has crossed my mind, but it would not really be feasible. But some creative cooks have already assembled a dessert plate in the same tricolour way: strawberry cakes, apple cakes and chocolate cakes with dark chocolate.

The French flag (blue, white and red) was adopted shortly after the French Revolution in 1789. The symbolism of the chosen colours has too many options to expand on in this food quiz.
Bouillabaisse is a French fish soup with origins in Marseille. The ingredients can vary, depending on what fish is available and on personal preference, but it should contain at least three different fish. A basic recipe is as follows: heat onions, garlic and peeled tomatoes in a pan of olive oil. Add sliced fish (for instance sea robin, scorpionfish and European conger), boiling water, salt and pepper, a selection of fine herbs and saffron. Simmer on low heat.
Meanwhile prepare the rouille (accompanying sauce): garlic, olive oil, egg yolk and saffron, to be smeared on bread.
Don't you ever try to serve a bouillabaisse resembling the French flag. Red is present with the tomatoes, white comes from the onions and garlic, but there are really no satisfactory blue ingredients to go with the fish (and I've skimmed a list of some dozens of them, including Bosque blue bumblebee tomatoes and dazzling blue kale). And of course: in a soup as bouillabaisse all colours get mixed up, they don't stay side by side.

Another tricolour, now with horizontal stripes of black, red and yellow represents Germany - often cited as the most significant European economy.
For a typical recipe from Germany, I selected the Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte - a very pleasing dessert, but not recommended for people on a diet to lose weight.
Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte translates to Black Forest cherry cake, and that points you to one of the main flavours and the place of origin.
To prepare a Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte, you start by baking the cake. Melt some dark chocolate in butter and mix with flour, sugar, baking soda and a mixture of eggs and buttermilk. Whisk until you have no more lumps in the batter. Then bake two layers of cake.
Mix some fresh cherries with cherry jam (or with some sugar, if you like to use only fresh cherries). You may add a bit of cherry liqueur (unless you want to avoid all alcohol, for instance if there are several young kids invited to the party). Finally assemble the cake: a bottom slice of cake, the cherry mixture, a top slice of cake, and the garnish (icing sugar or whipped cream).
As you see, the cake is black and the filling is red - but there is no yellow to add in order to obtain a Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte in the shape of the German flag. Unless you would colour the whipped cream with lemon zest, but then you should serve one slice of cake and turn the lot upside down - and that is quite impracticable.

The Italian flag of green, white and red was inspired by the French tricolour. But there is also a very interesting story that links this flag and the typical food I mention here. (And this story inspired me for the rest of this quiz too).
When in 1889 the Italian King Vittorio Emmanuele II and his wife Margherita of Savoy went to visit Naples, the pizza baker Raffaelle Esposito served a pizza with red, white and green toppings: San Marzano tomatoes, mozzarella and fresh basil.
If you want to prepare pizza margherita yourself, you may use ready-made pizza dough (available in most supermarkets). Or you might give it a try to bake the dough yourself, using flour, yeast, olive oil, salt and water (perhaps also some seasonings as dried oregano and/or dried basil). Once you have the dough ready, you can add the toppings and bake.
Warning: true Italians will recommend only mozzarella made from the milk of water buffaloes. They claim that other cheeses sold as mozzarella taste really bland in comparison to the mozzarella di buffala.